Tirek's Shadow

by LiterarySerenity

Chapter Twenty—Confronts a Shadow

Twilight listened until the story faded into silence, yet the content and final line remained vivid to her. It probably always would, during this moment and throughout her life. She had touched an essential memory from the Tree of Harmony and the history of Equestria as a whole. The message brought upon the princess’s soul a certain serenity, and she knew that everything would be fine now.

Rainbow Power had filled Twilight from the Tree of Harmony, and could feel their friends as though they were right there. And, in fact, they had somehow manifested in the cavern, from which the shadows had been driven—standing amid the Prism Flowers similarly imbued by the rainbow. Twilight could hardly contain her joy at seeing them, and she could tell the feeling was mutual.

The new activated star was orbiting the Tree of Harmony at an easy pace. Such color filled the cave now, which the Prism Flowers reflected in grand patterns across the walls, and the symphony of music Twilight heard was beautiful.

Then she at last ventured a gaze across to way, to where Discord floated. His expression of wide-eyed wonder had given way to a thoughtful pause, and Twilight noticed with relief that most of his color had returned, except for his lion’s paw and wings. But these things troubled him little, given how the draconequus caught her look and grinned.

A rumble sounded overhead, and the circle of friends heard the shadow continuing to rampage and shout out for them like a filly throwing a tantrum. Rocks, stones, candy, and bits of forestland rained into the ravine.

Twilight turned to every pony and said:
“Let’s end this.”

A round of cheers followed, and Twilight headed for the skies with her pony friends encircling her and Discord encircling them.

They must have made an impressive sight, raising up and over the colossal serpentine shadow. Twilight was struck by the similarities between these events, and when they had first assumed Rainbow Power to banish Tirek. This shadow had played on Discord’s fears, assuming the form of the centaur to intimidate and harm her friends.

Now he would get defeated in the same way.

Or, perhaps not exactly the same way.

Their power arched upwards, crashing onto the shadow and holding him in place, despite his best attempts to struggle against these friendship bonds.

Then Discord came forward.

“You played a nasty trick on my friends and me.” Discord scolded the shadow draconequus. “Although, without this incident, I may never have confronted the question of who I am.”

“I suppose you want to thank me for that.” The shadow glared. “You are a fool.”

“No. I am the Lord of Chaos, with good friends, renewed purpose, and even a cozy guestroom of my own. Meanwhile, you are my shadow.” Discord said. “So I’ll just take back what you have taken from me.”

With a snap of the fingers, Twilight watched the shadow begin to shrink, with what she now recognized as chaos magic pulling free from his being and back into Discord—returning the color to his lion paw wings.

“Then you can go back to being my shadow and ceasing to cause trouble.”

Another snap of the fingers—this time on both claws and his tail—and the Rainbow Power wrapped about the shadow tightly until a ball of energy shot free and exploded high in the sky like a grandiose firework. Magic came down across the Everfree Forest, and Twilight and the other ponies watched it return to life. Wild beasts returned to their homes, birds chirped in happiness, and they could see flowers blossoming.

Then, while still enveloped in Rainbow Power, Twilight and ponies fixed the damage caused by the shadow to the castle ruins and more, bringing together the roof until the outside of the building castle—at least—was whole. And that made for a wonderful change to witness. The whiteness surrounding Ponyville and the Everfree Forest dissipated, and Ponyville gained its usual vivacity.
Ponies in town were coming out into the streets as Twilight and her friends landed on the front steps of the palace, gathering in a large crowd to cheer them as the Rainbow Power wore off. There were whoops and happy cries.

“Every pony in town is here!” Pinkie Pie leapt up. “You do know what this means, don’t you?” She danced across the steps. “We have to have a super special ‘Ponyville is saved again and we want to party’ party.”

This announcement received much acclaim from every pony, and the other Ponyville residents were now climbing the steps to swarm about their heroes. Twilight could see her friends enjoying themselves immensely—except for one.

Discord.

Where was he?

For a moment, Twilight feared the chaos spirit might have disappeared again or tried to avoid this gathering altogether when Discord emerged from among the sea of ponies for a gasp of air. And the princess had to laugh.

Fillies and foals were clinging and climbing all over Discord, asking him odd questions about such things as his assortment of animal parts and the like. But Fluttershy saw his distress and flew to the rescue, where she seemed able to restore some normalcy to the situation.

Hah.

That is, if one could ever reach normalcy with Discord.

Yet this was far from a bad thing, and Twilight could only think of how glad she was that everything had turned out all right.

The resulting festivities went on for the rest of the day. Pinkie Pie put together a town-wide celebration with the help of their draconequus’ friend, and the wide range of different games and rides—including Ferris Wheels and a miniature roller coaster—would become particularly memorable parts of the happenings for years to come.

Rainbow Dash regaled all with her venture into the chaotic tornado, which in her version somehow sounded even larger and faster than in real life.

Applejack sold Zap Apple cider (also with a little help) that turned out to have a little extra zing for their customers, and most agreed it was a taste they would not soon forget.

Fluttershy gave several children a lesson on the wildlife in Everfree Forest, and how they needed to respect nature because it was important to maintaining balance in Equestria (and, of course, she had a lot of strong recent support for these statements).

Rarity helped with the decorations around the town, and enjoyed the festivities with Spike by her side—the dragon especially enjoyed their trip on the Ferris Wheel together—and then she announced that she planned to do a whole fashion line inspired by the natural world.

Discord derived the greatest pleasure from these events. He seemed to be everywhere at once, creating more cotton candy, adding new carts to the roller coaster, popping in to say hi to Fluttershy, and many other things. Some of his ideas turned a few heads, or caused one of their closest friends to advise him on the dangers of certain things—for instance, he had a ride on a miniature rocket ship over Ponyville open to fillies and colts for a whole five minutes until Fluttershy warned him against shooting children off in such a way.

However, the delighted way the ponies received the draconequus overall only heightened his enthusiasm and pleasure.

Meanwhile, Twilight made sure every pony had a fun time and was safe—which was not so hard to do. Unlike the week-long stream of celebrations following Tirek’s defeat, it was possible for her to take it easier and enjoy the events.

Nothing made the princess happier than seeing all her friends and the ponies in Ponyville getting along and laughing, while strengthening the bonds between them.

Everything that had occurred with the Tree of Harmony would take a while to soak in as well, just like so many things had had to do for Twilight. However, right now she could afford to take that time.

If she had any questions or issues later, well, then Twilight could just turn to her friends for advice.

And their bonds had never felt more magical than they did then.

Author's Note:

Stay tuned for the epilogue!

Comments

[Spiritofchaos227]

I am just so happy for everyone!~

[LiterarySerenity]

5417633 Ponyville and Equestria is at peace again, with friendship lessons learned and more. Now it's time for "Story Wrap-up" (in a little bit).

[Evia The Unicorn]

Wow, awesome ending! Wooh!

[LiterarySerenity]

5418149 Thanks! It's been wonderful to write this whole story. I'm posting the epilogue now. ^_^